Family

Thanks everyone for all the replies,we really appreciate it. Everyone has very good reasons and I'm sure if we are in good health and able we will enjoy getting away for at least 3 months. It sounds like a hard thing to do now but in 6 more yrs we will prob be very ready, well maybe.:) Thanks again for sharing!! Tara

I'm with Roy&Lynne. If you are old enough to snowbird then your kids are old enough to take care of themselves. The travel goes both ways: they can come visit you, besides it is only 3 or 4 months: it's not forever. Haven't any of you ever served in the military?? you leave family behind all the time and so how you get through it and maybe build a stronger relationship. Enjoy your life You children and grandchildren will enjoy their and probably not give muck thought as to whether they miss grandma and grandpa.

We moved to PA from NY because both of our children and our granddaughter live here now and the cost of living has afforded us a financially comfortable retirement. We are fortunate to see them frequently, which of course makes it more difficult to leave every winter. We leave after the holidays and spend January and February in Florida and return the 1st week of March. In the last 3 years my daughter and granddaughter visited us while we were down there but this year will be the test. My daughter is expecting our second grandchild and won't be able to travel, let's see if we last being away until March :-)

Its tough, but you have to live your life and do the things you want to do, and not live your children or grandchildren's life. Does that make any sense.

The most difficult thing for us was leaving the kids and grandkids when we went full-time over a year ago. We still miss them but can deal with it because of the things that we have seen and the places we have been.

We went back to the home area for a month to be near them. We maybe saw them three times. All are busy with their lives. Use Skype. Use Facebook. Use text messaging but see all that you can. Do everything you want because there are no guarantees for tomorrow.

Live it up, the meter's running!

Our GC are still young, ages 3 to 6. As I said, we have to deal with lots of emergencies with our family, (car trouble, kids illnesses/accidents, most recently-a flooded basement). Plus, school plays, soccer games, etc. One time, we were at a campsite,(my son forgot that we had left). He called me and said he was on his way to drop off his daughter so he could take son to ER for stiches. It broke my heart to have to tell him that we were 300 miles away!
Granted, I guess all of these things could have been handled by the kids some other way, but I like feeling needed and reliable. Plus, it's been my personal experience that as they get older, they still tend to rely on mom and dad. That's why we will stay here and deal with the winter.
PS: As I type, it's 15 degrees! :)

We are a little older than you and our kids are in early 50's, we have two DGKs a boy 12 and a girl 13. We have been retired about 17 years and we have taken two long trips in that time. The first 10 or 11 years the DGKs were around we went to everything and were surrogates at a lot of events. Now that they are in middle school, we find that we aren't needed around as much. Two years ago we left on Sept 15 and returned the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. We had planned on doing something like that last year and this fall and also going again in early Feb for two or three months. Our plans have been interrupted by having a little bout with the cancer fairy. My radiation fatigue is lessening so late Jan or early Feb looks like a go.

So here is the big one, our DGKs are really pushing us to get out of Dodge. They have traveled with us since they were 4 and 5 and they really like it but know they have school and their social activities and their folks. We have talked with them about "fly/camp" trips with us. We leave in Jan Feb and they fly to us in Mar or April and camp, then back to school.

We raved about the East including Gettysburg, DC, Atlanta, Savanna. They both want to see those places with us. We don't like travel in the summer as the crowds can be a pain and campsites hard to come by so it's fall and spring for us.

I know this won't work for everyone but it is working for us. We do worry about our eldest DD as she has cancer too. She is in controlled remission most of the time but every year or so she is back on chemo. She knows that should things really go South, we will be on a flight home immediately. In the meantime, she is a hard working marine biologist and works some weird hours sometimes and has a husband that wants her home with him as much as possible.

Our entire family wants us to use our MoHo and see the country. We keep in touch by email, text messages and this winter we'll start using Skype. All our adopted GKs and their parents and grandparents around the world are using it and have asked when we will start.

You will miss them, but including them with fly/camp, Skype, text messages and letters, emails and phone calls takes the edge off missing them. If you find out it isn't for you, short trips and holidays are fun too.

Good luck and have fun.

There are many ways nowdays to stay in touch. How old will the grandkids be in 6 years? By then they'll probably be involved with their own activities and the parents will be busy shuttling them around. When we began full-timing 16+ years ago we didn't even have a cell phone or internet. We managed very well the old-fashioned way - writing letters and calling them up from a telephone booth. We sent them postcards or trinkets from where we traveled. In their early years we spent Nov & Dec in Gulf Shores, Alabama; left the RV parked and drove the vehicle back north for the holidays. . . same for their birthdays. Sometimes we even flew from wherever to attend special school occurences. Sometimes just grandma would fly for a visit. During their summer vacations we either traveled to spend a chunk of time with them or they came to us for their vacation. We've also taken the grandkids alone and traveled to special places. Now they're much older and have their own lives but we still fit in quality time. Neither our kids or grandkids have ever complained about our lifestyle. They have great rememberances about places they've been because of our RVing. It's worked out just fine. You'll find your own ways!

My wife and I are at odds with this right now. She insists on being around for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I agree with her . As it is we only see our grand kids every month or two. I suggested we go to the Valley early to mid October and return before Thanksgiving and stay until after Christmas as we do now. She hasn't been too receptive to the idea so it looks like I'll go to the Valley in October next year and return before Thanksgiving and take her back after Christmas. She shouldn't see too much bad weather during that time and I'll get some improvements done on our unit in the Valley. As it is we are sitting here twinkling our thumbs and killing time. I don't like to just sit around.

Nothing can replace a hug, nothing can replace watching/cheering them doing a school activity, nothing can replace eating birthday cake with them. Yes, we get homesick at times during the winter.

We now fly home for Christmas for a week, get them to fly down to us for a winter time vacation, and spend as much quality time as we can during the summer.

Facebook and cell phones make you feel like you're not so far away and keeps you connected which helps a lot.